The Most Important Thing in Language Comprehension: Revisited

After several weeks of exploring linguistics (admittedly on a pretty basic level), I don't think I need to change what I had said earlier. Although we still haven't gone through lexical differences as much and so maybe I might change my opinion after tomorrow's class, I still believe that the lexicon, followed perhaps by syntax are the important parts in understanding speech. Sounds are not as relevant.

I believe this to be true, and not just from English. When I speak to someone who is not a native English speaker (or even sometimes to those who are) who pronounce things differently, there is an adjustment period but I can soon work out what they are saying without much difficulty. There are sometimes even cases where I have no real idea how I figured out what they were trying to say, but I somehow knew. The same is true in Hindi; I'm taking a Hindi class here (and have heard non-Indians speak Hindi before), and even though some of the sounds are quite difficult to produce, even when people don't get them exactly right the words are possible to understand. This is usually due to context or perhaps the mind works through all the possibilities for that sound it's hearing and figures out which one it ought to be and processes it accordingly.

The context can help with a lexical problem, but there it's far more difficult: a new word entirely, sometimes one that does not seem to make sense, makes it difficult to understand speech. When a dialect is full of new/different phrases and words, it is far harder to understand simply because the outsider has no reference point. I sometimes get confused as to whether slang counts in this category; I think it must, because it is part of the lexicon and people use it in everyday speaking to refer to something (whatever it might be). This makes it all the harder because slang definitely does vary from place to place and can be difficult to pick up without being explicitly explained.